英文读后感 Can Human Determine Their Own Destiny? 读后感作文
I have never been to Troy, but David Maule made me feel as if I were standing on the high wall of Troy, watching the fierce war. Thanks to this British author, who adapted the famous Homer’s poem into a lively story, I found it easier to understand this story. Though the story happened over 3000 years ago in a remote place, I was deeply fascinated by it.
The mysterious plot is one of the reasons why I loved The Story of Troy so much, yet I am more interested in the human heroes of the war.
Hector was the eldest son of king of Troy, Priam. He was not only a real hero of Trojan, but was regarded the highest moral hero in Greek classic by later historians. The war started because of the mischief of his brother, Paris, whom he didn’t appreciate. However, since Hector was the commander of the Trojan army, he was obliged to fight with all force. It was really a tragedy that such a valiant man died in the duel with another great warrior, Achilles.
It is natural to see death in a war. As a famous Chinese parable says, “A life can be as slight as a piece of feather, or as weighty as Mount Tai.” Sometimes, one’s glory walks hand in hand with one’s doom. Achilles was such a typical person. His personal charm made The Story of Troy more attractive. He was so crucial because his every appearance in a war encouraged his fellow soldiers and terrified the enemies. Actually, Achilles was half-god who was almost invincible in people’s mind. That’s why his name was memorized long after his death.
Besides the two great men, the wisdom of Odysseus also proved him to be a great hero. He didn’t want to attend the war because he was happily married and had a lovely son. However, since his country was allied to Mycenae, he had to take the command given by the king of Mycenae. I’m quite sure that the story of the wooden horse is widely known, however, few people know who thought of the brilliant idea, that’s why I admired Odysseus so much because he was the person who got the idea. Thanks to the horse, the ten-year war came to an end at last. If you want to know how the wooden horse worked, just read the book.
The ancient Greeks believed that the gods and goddesses also played important roles in the origin, process and ending of the whole story.
The story of the golden apple was such an example. When Eris, the goddess of argument and disagreement, threw out the golden apple to a wedding ceremony on Mount Olympus, a dispute happened. Hera, the queen of gods, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, were all involved in the argument for the apple. None of them was willing to give way, so they turned to Paris for a final judgment. Tempted by Aphrodite’s beauty and promise, Paris handed the apple to her. To keep her word, Aphrodite helped him to get Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, as his wife. That was the cause of the war.
Paris’s choice obviously annoyed the other two goddesses. So during the war, they helped the Greek alliance army while some other gods, such as Apollo and Aphrodite, guarded Troy. When Paris dueled with Helen’s former husband Menelaus, Aphrodite saved Paris when he was about to be finished off.
After the duel between those two people, there was a truce between the Greek alliance and Troy. However, both Hera and Athena were not happy to see it. Hera pursued her husband ZEUS:“ Now, will you send Athena to make the Troyjans break the peace?”(Page 22) Then with Zeus’s permission, Athena went down to start the war again and finally she brought the Greeks to success.
From the whole story, we can see that in ancient Greeks’ view, gods sometimes played a much more important role in their life. However, with the rapid development of science, we have learned that the Greek gods never existed. This is why a recent movie of Troy has not mentioned a single god. Everything happened due to men’s ambition, love, loyalty or jealousy. With those emotion and people’s effort, we human beings can accomplish wonders and be master of the world.
God are of less importance than they used to be. Nonetheless, the gods and goddesses made The Story of Troy more mysterious and marvelous.
I have learnt from the book more than the wonderful story of history, love and war. I believe that human can determine their destiny by their own. I highly recommend this book to my friends with the same interest.
英文读后感 A Book of All Times
A Book of All Times——Thoughts given by Sherlock Holmes and the Duke’s SonWritten in the first chapter of the book Pride and Prejudice is an extraordinary sentence of which even a person who has had only a brief look upon the book will not fail to receive a deep impression-It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. In terms of Sherlock Holmes, we’d better alter the sentence into “It is a fact universally accepted by readers throughout the world that an excellent book in possession of our famous detective Sherlock Holmes is undoubtedly a masterpiece of all times.” Perhaps this is one of the most obvious explanations for the unrivaled popularity of “Holmes series” in the field of detective stories. Overwhelmed by the recommendations provided by my friends, I decided to take a look on this Sherlock Holmes and the Duke’s Son originally published by Oxford University Press.
As a whole, this book is about a case concerning the Duke’s missing son. Arthur, the Duke’s son, was found out in a certain morning to have disappeared, accompanied with which was also the disappearance of the German teacher. The school master Dr. Huxtable then turned to the famous detective of the time Sherlock Holmes for help. Realizing how tough and important the case is, Holmes immediately made up his mind to accept the case and followed Dr. Huxtable back to Mackleton by train. Having formed a rough idea about the whole matter, Holmes probed into the case immediately and had a careful investigation of the entire area shortly after the arrival, during the process of which he discovered the body of the German teacher Heidegger. Finally, primarily due to his prominent ability as a detective, he managed to unravel the mystery and obtained the twelve thousand pounds promised by the Duke.
Having once started reading this fiction, I was completely immersed in the mysterious story presented by the book. As the saying goes, “Well begun, half done”. At the beginning of the story, just like many other detective stories, the author gives us a brief description of the condition by the words of a client. However, unlike other ones, this story first delineates the client’s strange behavior at length to indicate the severity of the incident in order to attract the readers to continue reading it. As is known to all, vivid depiction is essential to detective stories since it can help the readers understand each figure’s characteristics and visualize the scenes, thus making the story more authentic and attractive. Therefore, trying to present a “real world” to his readership, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the original “Holmes series”, has skillfully arranged the plots of the whole story from the perspective of Dr. Watson, a character not so specialized in discovering the truth hidden behind the enigmatic happenings as Holmes but so loyal to Sherlock Homes as a friend that he always accompanies Holmes wherever he goes. In this way, he elaborately depicted every scene and character in the book, Apart from the special start, the ending of the whole story, being dramatic but reasonable, is certainly an outstanding one. After all, except the author himself, who knows that the Duke’s seemingly ordinary secretary is in fact the Duke’s bastard? In addition, who knows that the Duke actually has already been acquainted with the whole thing before Holmes solves this complicated problem? Yet, surprising as it is, this ending seems so natural that it fits all the plots of the story perfectly well. While enjoying this wonderful story, I could do nothing but admire the wonderful design of this masterpiece as well as the author’s gorgeous writing skill. Closing my eyes, I can even “see” the story happening just like watching a film. Not until then did I understand why the Japanese cartoon film Detective Conan used this “Conan” as the name of its hero.
As far as I am concerned, nothing is more admirable and surprising in the hero Sherlock Homes than his profound knowledge which has certainly assisted him a lot when he was studying the case. Take the bicycle tyres for instance, Holmes actually is capable of recognizing 42 different varieties of bicycle tyres. What’s more, according to his other stories, Holmes has studied different kinds of newspapers, cigarettes, people’s footprints and other special things as well. Therefore, he seems to have the mastery of anything relevant to the cases he deals with. Except for his illimitable knowledge, Holmes also specializes in arranging the facts in order and then finding the fact leading him to a great discovery or even the truth itself. From his speaking “Every mystery has an answer”, we can readily shape the impression of a man with great intelligence and inflexible will. In this case, after getting rid of unrelated facts, Sherlock Homes eventually grasped the clue and discovered the amazing fact.
Needless to say, as a world-renowned masterpiece, Sherlock Holmes and the Duke’s Son has attracted and is still charming numerous readers from all corners of the world and people from all walks of life. The “Holmes series” has already set up a standard against which all the following detective fictions are measured. Sherlock Holmes, beyond all doubt, has become a name firmly rooted in people’s memories. Although Dr. Watson’s closing The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927 was a great pity to the readers, the discontinuance of the entire “Holmes series” may have actually added to the legendary stature of Sherlock Holmes.
